Dane, but not enough for two!" A very pleasant side of Copenhagen life
has sprung up from this appreciation, for the restaurants and cafes are
numerous, and cater well for their customers. While the Dane eats he
must have music, which, like the food, must be good; he is very
critical, and a good judge of both. This gay cafe and restaurant life is
one of the fascinations of Denmark's "too-large heart," as this pleasant
capital is called by its people.

CHAPTER II

MERRY COPENHAGEN--II

The climate of Copenhagen is delightful in summer, but quite the reverse
in winter. Andersen says "the north-east wind and the sunbeams fought
over the 'infant Copenhagen,' consequently the wind and the 'mud-king'
reign in winter, the sunbeams in summer, and the latter bring
forgetfulness of winter's hardships." Certainly, when the summer comes,
the sunshine reigns supreme, and makes Copenhagen bright and pleasant
for its citizens. Then the many water-ways and canals, running up from
the sea as they do into the heart of the city, make it delightfully
refreshing on a hot day. Nyhavn, for instance, which opens out of the
Kongen's Nytorv--the fashionable centre of the town--is one of the
quaintest of water-streets. The cobbled way on either side of the water,
the curious little shops with sailors' and ships' wares, old gabled
houses, fishing and cargo boats with their forests of masts, the little
puffing motor-boats plying to and fro--all serve to make a distinctive
picture. On another canal-side the fish-market is held every morning. A
Danish fish-market is not a bit like other fish-markets, for the Dane
must buy his fish alive, and the canal makes this possible. The
fishing-smacks line up the whole side of the quay; these have perforated
wooden boat-shaped tanks dragging behind them containing the lively
fish. The market-women sit on the quay, surrounded by wooden tubs, which
are half-filled with water, containing the unfortunate fish. A
trestle-table, on which the fish are killed and cleaned, completes the
equipment of the fish-wives. The customers scrutinize the contents of
the tub, choose a fish as best they can from the leaping, gasping
multitude, and its fate is sealed. When the market-women require more
fish, the perforated tank is raised from the canal, and the fish
extracted with a landing-net and deposited in their tubs. Small fish
only can be kept alive in tanks and tubs; the larger kinds, such as cod,
are killed and so